Clay Sealings

In the course of sifting earth removed from the Temple Mount in Jerusalem, dozens of clay sealings from the First Temple period were recovered. Among them was a sealing bearing the name of the priestly family of Immer. In-depth study of the writing on the sealing, as well as the fabric imprint on its reverse, indicated with a high probability that this sealing was used in the Temple treasury. The article reviews the function and use of sealings in the administration of ancient Near Eastern treasuries and the significance of sealings with a textile imprint on their reverse. The study revealed similar patterns in the finds near the "Royal Building" exposed in the Ophel excavations, and we therefore suggest identifying it with Judah's royal treasury.

The ancient city of Gitana in Thesprotia is located on the north bank of Thyamis river, near its junction with the Kalpakiotikos tributary. This fortified settlement was built at an advantageous spot, having access both to the fertile lands of Cestrine and to the sea through Thyamis (mod. Kalamas). Virtually unknown besides one passage by Polybios and another one by Titus Livius, Gitana came into the spotlight of research after 1986 when the first excavation was conducted on the site. Excavations became systematic and are still continued in the present-day, revealing major architectural remains and yielding highly important finds.
Archaeological data pointed out early on that this was not just an urban settlement, but from the late 4th century BC it emerged gradually as the capital city of the ethnos of the Thesprotians and later as a major centre of the Koinon of the Epirotes. As a case study the site in question turns out to be particularly interesting, in order to evaluate political and economic organization in a region rather neglected by research, as well as to get a closer look to the development of the ethnos-states, especially towards the formation of a larger confederacy engulfing most of north-western Greece.
In tracing commercial relations with other territories evidence obtained from stamped amphora handles is very useful: the most remarkable examples so far come from Rhodos and Italy (mainly from Apulia). Coin circulation is of course a crucial factor in gathering information both for everyday transactions in this area that were made with the use of local coinages and for the documentation of the presense of foreign coins that gives a characteristic mosaic of monetary contacts. The several issuing authorities (Epirote Koinon, Ambracia, Corcyra, Macedonian kings, Illyria, Cassope, Corinth, Acarnania, Aetolia, Leucas, Rome, Ptolemies, etc) can be viewed in perspective according to the number of the found coins and the dating of the issues employed, alongside with other intriguing remarks. The discovery of approximately 3,000 clay sealings in the ‘Building A’ (probably the Prytaneion) of Gitana gives a rare chance to study an extremely valuable public archive, since the seal impressions had been used on papyri documents that were incinerated during the destruction of the city by the Romans in 167 BC. The significance of this material can be fully appreciated in due time; the pieces of information already extracted change radically the picture regarding the city’s institutions, its economy and administration, the contacts with other communities and polities, the prosopography of the broader area and other aspects of a society barely familiar to us until now.

There is a growing body of seal impressions from various sites on Bahrain and Failaka. The available evidence from the City IIb-c period indicates that sealing practices were not limited to a small, privileged section of Dilmun society. Moreover, in both institutional and domestic settings broken sealings have been found that were stored and kept for some time before being discarded, often in discrete batches, which suggests the existence of a widely-adopted accounting system. Stratigraphical and spatial distribution of sealings, especially in combination with the designs of the seals that are imprinted on them, are important indicators of the level of connectivity and the place of these households within Early Dilmun’s social fabric. This paper discusses some of their implications for our understanding of Dilmun’s socio-economic structure and organisation.

Keywords: Dilmun, Bronze Age, seals and seal impressions, archival practices, socio-economic complexity

Clay sealings of the Early Dynastic IIIB and Akkadian period from Telloh that are kept at the Louvre museum
in Paris are here presented with the aim of discussing their use, but also present the iconography of the impressed seals
and the objects the sealings were used on. The corpus represents an excellent occasion to discuss high-level bureaucracy
during the 3rd millennium BC, since the seals only belonged to high officials and kings.

Gitana, an ancient city in Epirus barely known from literary evidence, emerged as a major area of archaeological research rather recently via the excavations conducted there. The importance of the city as capital of the Thesprotians and as principal center for the Epirotan affairs is gradually demonstrated through impressive finds that have come to light.
Through the study of the coins excavated during years 1986-1997, a good sample has been assembled for the assessment of the coin circulation at Gitana. Alongside with an overview of the diffusion of coinage in the broader area valuable remarks can be drawn. The rarity of the Peloponnesian coins is examined in comparison to the predominant emissions circulating in Epirus, issuing authorities are highlighted and other bits of information are discussed, tracing virtually unknown contacts between the two regions.
Within the aforementioned context, from the particularly significant group of approximately 3,000 clay sealings from the correspondence archive found at Gitana, comes a highly interesting inscribed seal impression issued by the city of Dyme. In combination with the most probable terminus ante quem, an attempt is made to date the iconographic type by seeking comparanda in the coin production of the city in question and beyond.

The prehistoric clay sealings from Arpachiyah present an important corpus hitherto only partially published by M. Mallowan (Mallowan - Rose, Iraq 2, 1935, 1-178). The corpus consists of sealings of the Halaf and late chalcolithic periods, the latter dating almost exclusively to the Gawra period. A single cylinder seal impression of the Ninevite 5 period is also included in the corpus.
The sealings from Arpachiyah are of special significance in that they present nearly the only large, stratified group of sealings of the Halaf period. Furthermore, the sealings of the Gawra period offer important comparisons to the sealings from Tepe Gawra itself.

This paper will suggest a hypothesis about the Early Bronze Age administrative organization of Chogha Maran and the Mahidasht in the West Central Zagros based on administrative evidence retrieved from the Early Bronze Age trash deposits excavated at the site of Chogha Maran and previous researches and fieldworks carried out in the region. Based on this hypothesis, in order to adapt to the socio-economic and political developments of the Late Forth and Early Third Millennium B.C. and trying to diversify their subsistence strategies, communities of the region developed a village based mixed economy involving settled farmer groups and mobile pastoralist groups who could exploit pastoralism potential of the mountainous environment of the region as well as reorganizing regional and interregional trade around the Khorasan Highroad. Administrative organization of the communities had to be adjusted to the absence of mobile groups in the village during some periods of the year, therefore, they constructed a communal administration in which each group of people could store their products, foodstuff and properties and access to them when they need. As a result, different groups of people, especially the mobile ones had the assurance that they could protect and control their belongings in the village. Testing the hypothesis requires further studies on the administrative evidence excavated at Chogha Maran as well as museum research and fieldworks.

Open Access Journal, this article is downloadable through the URL attached.

In recent years, there has been an increasing interest within Egyptology in theoretical issues concerning material culture and identity. This interest gave input to review previous approaches to the study of cultural contacts in ancient Egypt. Specific object categories may result more advantageous than others for the research on cultural contacts of a given period. This is the case of scarabs during the Second Intermediate Period since they show features related to both Egyptian and Levantine traditions. The research to date has tended to collect scarabs focusing on possible places of origin according to their iconographic features. This paper will review thirteen newly excavated scarab seal impressions from Avaris, dating to the Second Intermediate Period and bearing the representation of a female deity. To these iconographies is usually ascribed a Palestinian manufacture. The sealings from Avaris represent the largest glyptic group displaying goddess’ iconographies outside the Levant and they will be analysed highlighting their mixture of Egyptian and Levantine features and the points of contacts between both cultures. This analysis shows the high degree of integration between cultures at Avaris suggesting that the outcomes of this cultural entanglement cannot always be classified or attributed to one specific
culture or place of origin.